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Christian Bioethics Advance Access originally published online on July 16, 2009
Christian Bioethics 2009 15(2):173-198; doi:10.1093/cb/cbp013
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of The Journal of Christian Bioethics, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Christian Bioethics issue: Diakonia II: Care-Taking in the Medical Realm and its Political Implementation [View the issue table of contents]

Diakonia, the State, and Ecumenical Collaboration: Theological Pitfalls

Corinna Delkeskamp-Hayes

Freigericht, Germany

Address correspondence to: Corinna Delkeskamp-Hayes, European Programs, International Studies in Philosophy and Medicine, Buchbergstrasse 17, 63579 Freigericht, Germany. E-mail: corinna.delkeskamp-hayes{at}gmx.de


  Abstract

This essay questions the way in which continental Western Christians welcome political implementation (i.e., integration into the publicly funded welfare network and collaboration with heterodox Christians, members of other religions, or irreligious humanitarians) when offering their diaconic services. Among the theological assumptions underlying such reliance from outside the Church, this essay takes special issue with the idea that Christianity's "ethical" commitment to charity can be separated from its spiritual (e.g., liturgical, ascetical, missionary) concerns. Such separation suggests prioritizing charity recipients’ needs over against the framing character of charity providers’ Christian love. On the philosophical level, this same separation refashions Christian philanthropy in terms of a secularly construed "human dignity." This dignity, even though nominally endorsed by the welfare bureaucracy, is however shown to get repudiated by the objectifying and depersonalizing implications of publicly funded social services. On the theological level, the potentially anti-Christian implications of secularly implemented "diakonia" are pointed out. The scriptural bases usually invoked for the prioritizing of needs are exposed as unfit to offer the hoped-for justification. As a result, only, and at most, a very limited, reserved, and watchful material cooperation with the secular state and with those outside the Church is recommended for Christian "diakonia."

Keywords: Christian morality, depersonalization, diakonia, ecumenical cooperation, human dignity, priority of needs, recognition


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